Super Bowl L1: The ending of the (amended) 84 Lumber ad Fox rejected won’t be seen on TV

February 2, 2017

The media – traditional and digital – is full of comments, opinions and observations about the Trump administration. It feels as though only a small percentage of them are news reports. And that’s really healthy.

But it appears that they’re not allowed in ads during Fox’s Super Bowl broadcast. In fact, Fox doesn’t allow them at all. Its advertising guidelines state that it won’t sell commercial time “for viewpoint or advocacy of controversial issues,” and advertisers cannot use its space to address controversial topics.

So building supplies company, 84 Lumber, had its first ever Super Bowl ad rejected, because it showed a (Spanish-speaking) mum and daughter confronted by a border wall.

The company and its agency, Brunner, amended the ad. It remains a story about a mum and daughter’s journey. There is still a sense of escaping hardship. The new ad has no ending.

84 Lumber promised at the time that it would air the original ad and the final frames of the new ad direct viewers to a website, Journey84.com, to “see the conclusion”. All will be revealed on February 7.

The 90 second ad will run during the second quarter of the Super Bowl.